MCT EV use question

[Sue Bee]

Hello WTM Community. I'm new here, although I've been quietly reading for a couple of years. My two oldest attended a classical school for their first few years. We moved, and this is the end of our second year of homeschooling.

 

For other users of MCT Essay Voyage: I like much about this text -- but not, ironically, the actual writing assignments given at the end of each chapter. Does anyone else share my opinion, and if so, what have you done about it? I am planning to adapt/create my own assignments, but I'd appreciate commiseration or suggestions.

 

Sue Bee

[Jen500]

Hello WTM Community. I'm new here, although I've been quietly reading for a couple of years. My two oldest attended a classical school for their first few years. We moved, and this is the end of our second year of homeschooling.

 

For other users of MCT Essay Voyage: I like much about this text -- but not, ironically, the actual writing assignments given at the end of each chapter. Does anyone else share my opinion, and if so, what have you done about it? I am planning to adapt/create my own assignments, but I'd appreciate commiseration or suggestions.

 

Sue Bee

 

:bigear:

I'm planning on using Essay Voyage next year. Could you elaborate on what you didn't like about the assignments?

[Sue Bee]

Well (speaking without doing an exact count), of the 5 or 6 options for each chapter, 3 or 4 are something like "estimate how long the march from Rome to Trieste might have taken" or "use a globe or map to pinpoint exactly where City X and City Y are. What might you see along the way from X to Y?" Granted, these are meant to be options, and for discussion, etc., and they follow a thread and are not random, but they are not writing options. There are usually also a couple of writing-specific options as well (e.g., "what constitutes wordiness and why is it a problem?"), and while they're good questions to discuss, they're not writing options. In the end there are usually only about two writing options, and for the price, I would have hoped not to have to improvise the writing assignments in the writing texts.

 

Sue Bee

Edited May 13, 2011 by Sue Bee
forgot to sign, new at this -- wanted to correct wording

[Caitilin]

Hmm. We are finishing up EV and while I agree that there are some questions whose purpose is clearly to promote class discussion, I would say that there are usually at least 3 writing options given for each section. I would not consider the wordiness one, for instance, as meant to be a writing assignment, but something for me to talk about, socratically, with my dds. I remember this section, and while we thought the wordiness discussion was fruitful, I would not have assigned them to write on it.

 

Most of the writing assignments in Voyage have to do with the geography and history of the place where the author finds himself in each chapter, following the voyaging theme of the text. I was hoping for a more literary focus, I admit, but have no problems with the assignments as given; we did a separate lit program, so they worked on those skills in that context, and they did need practice in doing reports, so I was happy with it.

 

As ever, YMMV.:001_smile:

[Shawna in Texas]

The options are teaching my dd research skills. For this week and the next, her assignments include finding a photo of some place (I can't remember what place exactly) and write a paragraph on that. The next is analyzing two different historical essays and noting the difference of tone (lol, I think). Her last writing assignment is one that I changed. I remember it was supposed to be a 5 paragraph one, but I changed it from whatever it was to Henry VIII's most successful marriage because we are covering the Tudors right now.

 

Sometimes I stick with the assignment as it's stated, or sometimes I have it about something that we are studying.

 

I also notice dd looks through this book consistently, even on writing assignments that are separate.

[Sue Bee]

Hmm. We are finishing up EV and while I agree that there are some questions whose purpose is clearly to promote class discussion, I would say that there are usually at least 3 writing options given for each section. I would not consider the wordiness one, for instance, as meant to be a writing assignment, but something for me to talk about, socratically, with my dds. I remember this section, and while we thought the wordiness discussion was fruitful, I would not have assigned them to write on it.

 

Most of the writing assignments in Voyage have to do with the geography and history of the place where the author finds himself in each chapter, following the voyaging theme of the text. I was hoping for a more literary focus, I admit, but have no problems with the assignments as given; we did a separate lit program, so they worked on those skills in that context, and they did need practice in doing reports, so I was happy with it.

 

As ever, YMMV.:001_smile:

 

Thanks for your reply. Just to clarify (as I outlined above), I also do not consider the wordiness option a writing option but rather a discussion starter. And we enjoy those.

 

As I look over some chapters again, I'm realizing that I should consider the "compare/contrast this essay to that one" ideas writing options; we have to this point only used them for oral analysis and discussion. Would you agree?

 

Thank you!

[Sue Bee]

Shauna, you mention that you are using the compare/contrast as written assignments. I sheepishly admit I was not considering them writing assignments but rather lumping them in the discussion category.

 

And the tweeks mentioned above, such as adjusting topic to fit other studies, I have also used. I will forge ahead.

 

Thank you, ladies.